I used this song to check how I was doing when learning the language. I didn’t jump into the works of Cicero; I went for Mediaeval song lyrics because they still contain all the major points of Latin.
Despite this song complaining about the vagaries of fate
that are beyond our control, whoever wrote O Fortuna in the early 13th century
probably had fate on his side. A century or so later the Black Death wiped out
an estimated 50,000,000 people including perhaps 50% of the European
population; nobody knew what caused it and nobody knew how to stop it. They
just had to accept their fate.
How ironic it is to listen to this song, with Carl Orff’s
towering and dark composition, performed by the Edinburgh Festival choir – in a
silent and locked down Scotland – at the mercy of a global pandemic which, at
first, had no cure. The pleasure in their faces at the end is probably when
restrictions were relaxed a little.
Whatever was going to happen at that time, it was out of our
hands.
Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi │Fate, the Empress of the World
In this post I have given the Latin lyrics together with an
English translation as close as possible to the original. In the next post I’ll
give vocabulary and notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNwBExn1zgg
O Fortuna │O Fortune
velut luna │just like the moon
statu variabilis │variable in state
semper crescis │(you are) always growing
(waxing)
aut decrescis │ or decreasing (waning)
vita detestabilis │detestable life
nunc obdurat │now it oppresses
et tunc curat │and then it
soothes (heals)
ludo mentis aciem │keeness of mind with a game (it plays
with mental clarity)
egestatem │poverty
potestatem │power
dissolvit ut glaciem. │it melts (them) like ice.
Sors immanis │Fate, monstrous
et inanis │and empty
rota tu volubilis │you turning wheel
status malus │evil condition
vana salus │ empty (worthless) security (a false sense of
security / well-being)
semper dissolubilis│always dissoluble (fading to nothing)
obumbrata │shadowed
et velata │and veiled
michi quoque niteris │you bear upon me too
nunc per ludum│dorsum nudum│fero tui sceleris. │Now through
the game of your wickedness I bear a naked back [= my back is bare]
Sors salutis│The fate of health
et virtutis│and virtue
michi nunc contraria, │are now against me
est affectus│weakened
et defectus│worn out (“weighted down” in some translations)
semper in angaria. │always in slavery
Hac in hora│in this hour
sine mora│without delay
corde pulsum tangite; │touch the beat of the string
quod per sortem│because through fate
sternit fortem, │she strikes down the strong
mecum omnes plangite! │Everybody weep with
me!
